THE ID GUIDE

Dragon or dam­sel? First, work out if you’re look­ing at a dam­sel­fly or a true drag­on­fly. That’s not too dif­fi­cult: Body shape: Dam­sel­flies look like match­sticks – true drag­on­flies are much chunkier. The wings: When they set­tle dam­sel­flies fold their wings along their back (ex­cept the Emer­ald dam­sel­flies – theirs stick out at about 45 de­grees). True drag­on­flies hold their wings at right an­gles to the body. The eyes: Look for a gap be­tween the eyes on a dam­sel­fly. On true drag­on­flies the eyes touch (with one ex­cep­tion in this coun­try – the Club-tailed Drag­on­fly, but you’re not very likely to see one of those!) In flight: Dam­sel­flies are weak and flut­tery, but very good at ma­noeu­vring around veg­e­ta­tion; true drag­on­flies are strong, pow­er­ful fliers.